In a final livestream a few weeks before the release, Larian talks about numerous innovations and puts the focus on your own character and companions.
With Baldur’s Gate 3 perhaps the most comprehensive fantasy role-playing game of the entire year is coming our way on August 3. Since Larian brought forward the release date, it has become increasingly clear just how packed this RPG really is. Most recently, a developer blog only made it clear that much more content awaits us after Early Access Now the team talked about the game again in a livestream and brought even more extensive additions to light.
Two areas of the game stood out in particular: the companions and one’s own character. Larian once again showed how the system works, who can accompany you and how your relationships develop.
Desire as a companion
One of the most important announcements was surely the unveiling of a completely new … well, character? Because Larian revealed a seventh Origin “companion” called The Dark Urge. Origin characters are actually characters that we can play from the beginning of the game itself as well as pick up as companions during the first act. These include Astarion, Lae’zel, Gale, Shadowheart, Wyll and Karlach.
However,
The Dark Urge is a little different, because this character can only be embodied by you and has neither a predefined class nor a predefined race, you create it yourself. In any case, your character will be guided by mysterious, very, very dark urges. You can give in to these urges or resist them.
The result is completely new interactions that would otherwise not be possible. In the stream, for example, the character chops off a hand of the mage Gale right at the beginning instead of recruiting him as a companion. The Dark Urge was, after all, the serial killer last hunted down in a free prequel.
Love and more
Another big part of the stream was to clarify the relationships with your companions. In total, there will be ten possible companions in Baldur’s Gate 3 that you will either take in, disown or even seduce. Especially with the latter, Larian wants to make a special effort. Relationships are not only supposed to consist of you completing a quest for the companion and the companion then getting into the box with you.
Relationships should develop organically and how you present yourself and behave plays an important role. In addition, a relationship is supposed to develop over the course of the story – sometimes with a dark ending.
But when you do get intimate with your lover, Baldur’s Gate 3 doesn’t hold back. The game shows quite explicit sex scenes, which can also consist of more than just classic flirtation. In the stream, a romantic scene took place between half-elf Astarion and druid Halsin – whereby the latter turned into a bear. You’ll have to decide for yourselves whether this was really necessary.
More about character creation and companions
Besides these big sections, there were plenty of little reveals in the stream on both topics, but they are certainly exciting to read as well:
- Much more creation options have been added, such as ageing, freckles or body shape. As well as various other choices for hair, horns and so on.
- In the finished game, there will be a free respec feature that lets you reset class and skill points.
- You can also choose to level up more than one class. This will allow for exciting new builds.
- If you don’t like any of the pre-made companions or kill them all as Dark Urge, you can also hire 12 mercenaries, one for each class, which are fully customisable.
- The companion Wyll has been completely rewritten. So you will experience him differently than he was in Early Access.
- There will be a newspaper in Baldur’s Gate whose content is influenced by your actions and which you can also manipulate.
That’s it for new announcements about Baldur’s Gate 3. What do you think? Are you excited about all the new features or is there something that bothers you, maybe even missing? Did you play the Early Access and are you still looking forward to the full release? Tell us in the comments what you think about these questions!
